James Scott Baumgarner

1935 - His father was a carpet layer, and his mother died when James was four years old. After their mother's death, James and his brothers were sent to live with other relatives, but James was reunited with his family, when Weldon remarried.

1950 - He has starred in several television series spanning a career of more than five decades, including his roles as Bret Maverick.

1954 - He landed a non-speaking role in the Broadway production of The Caine Mutiny Court Martial, where he was able to study the actor Henry Fonda at close quarters, night after night.

1956 - His first movie appearances were in The Girl He Left Behind and Toward the Unknown.

1957 - Got his big break playing the role of professional gambler Bret Maverick in the comedy Western series Maverick.

1960 - He starred in such films as The Thrill of It All and Move Over, Darling, both with Doris Day, Boys' Night Out with Kim Novak and Tony Randall, The Great Escape, The Americanization of Emily with Julie Andrews and James Coburn, The Art of Love with Dick Van Dyke and Elke Sommer, and Support Your Local Sheriff! with Walter Brennan and Jack Elam.

1969 - Joined a long list of actors to play Raymond Chandler's Phillip Marlowe, in Marlowe.

1971 - Returned to television in an extremely offbeat western called Nichols.

1979 - He was hospitalized with a bleeding ulcer in 1979, some years before successful treatments for ulcers were discovered.

1981 - He returned to his most popular TV role in the revival series Bret Maverick, but NBC unexpectedly cancelled the show after only one season despite reasonably good ratings.

1988 - He underwent quintuple heart bypass surgery.

- He rapidly recovered, the doctors insisted that he stop smoking.

1993 - He played the lead in another well received TV movie, Barbarians at the Gate, and went on to reprise his role as Jim Rockford in eight The Rockford Files made for TV movies, beginning the following year.

1994 - Played an extremely Earp like role as Marshal Zane Cooper in a movie version of Maverick, with Mel Gibson as Bret Maverick and Jodie Foster as a gambling lass with a fake southern accent.

1995 - He played lead character Woodrow Call, an ex-lawman, in the TV miseries sequel to Lonesome Dove, Streets of Laredo, based on Larry McMurtry's book.

1996 - Garner and Jack Lemmon teamed up in the largely underrated My Fellow Americans, playing two former presidents, both framed for scandalous activity in their days in the White House.

2000 - He appeared with Clint Eastwood in the movie Space Cowboys, also featuring Tommy Lee Jones and Donald Sutherland.

2003 - He joined the cast of 8 Simple Rules as Grandpa Egan. Originally intended to be a one-shot guest role, he stayed with the series until its end.

2004 - Starred in the movie version of Nicholas Spark's The Notebook alongside Gena Rowlands as his wife, directed by Nick Cassavetes, Rowlands' son.

2006 - A ten foot tall statue of James Garner as Bret Maverick was unveiled in Garner's hometown of Norman, Oklahoma, with Garner present at the ceremony.